skyring's review against another edition
4.0
I read this years ago, when I devoured the whole corpus of SF. I enjoyed it then, and when I picked it up again after decades on the shelf, I was surge I'd like it even more.
I now know a great deal more about America and I've been to Gettysburg. I'm not entirely sure that possessing Little Round Top would have swung the whole war, but it would certainly have changed the entire tone of the battle if Lee had secured it on the first day.
But we don't get there for a long while. Moore takes his time, setting the scene, filling in the history of the defeated North and giving us tantalising glimpses of affairs in the wider world. It's a hard life in what's left of the USA, and the penniless protagonist is lucky to find shelter and employment with an oddbod bookseller.
Drawn into shadowy affairs, things turn sticky, and has he really escaped to a better place when he falls in with some arcadian academics? There's sex and spice, history and conflict before the fateful trip into the past, to stand at a turning point in history.
I love time travel stories. Apart from the sense of anachronism - "Good morrow, milord, can'st inform me whereabouts of a batterymonger?" - there are all the delightful possibilities and paradoxes. What happens if you accidentally - or deliberately - kill your own ancestor? If you can change the past, will you also change the future, or is the universe self-repairing?
Moore sketches in the outlines of this puzzling world that is at once past and future. The 1930s as they never were. But might have been. And he gives us enough details to illustrate how odd it could have been. If the USA had not been a prosperous and inventive hub of industry during the latter Nineteenth and early Twentieth Centuries, what technologies might have gone undiscovered? No Henry Ford to bring motoring to the masses.
No Wright Brothers to bring us flight. No Edison, no Bell to harness electricity.
I'm reminded of Stephen King's recent expedition into time travel, where we find out what ramifications JFK had on the world. A single point in time where history teeters. A man in a Dallas warehouse, another in a peach orchard. Ordinary people in ordinary places, and yet the world forks.
This is one of the classics of science fiction and time travel. It is - paradoxically - timeless.
I now know a great deal more about America and I've been to Gettysburg. I'm not entirely sure that possessing Little Round Top would have swung the whole war, but it would certainly have changed the entire tone of the battle if Lee had secured it on the first day.
But we don't get there for a long while. Moore takes his time, setting the scene, filling in the history of the defeated North and giving us tantalising glimpses of affairs in the wider world. It's a hard life in what's left of the USA, and the penniless protagonist is lucky to find shelter and employment with an oddbod bookseller.
Drawn into shadowy affairs, things turn sticky, and has he really escaped to a better place when he falls in with some arcadian academics? There's sex and spice, history and conflict before the fateful trip into the past, to stand at a turning point in history.
I love time travel stories. Apart from the sense of anachronism - "Good morrow, milord, can'st inform me whereabouts of a batterymonger?" - there are all the delightful possibilities and paradoxes. What happens if you accidentally - or deliberately - kill your own ancestor? If you can change the past, will you also change the future, or is the universe self-repairing?
Moore sketches in the outlines of this puzzling world that is at once past and future. The 1930s as they never were. But might have been. And he gives us enough details to illustrate how odd it could have been. If the USA had not been a prosperous and inventive hub of industry during the latter Nineteenth and early Twentieth Centuries, what technologies might have gone undiscovered? No Henry Ford to bring motoring to the masses.
No Wright Brothers to bring us flight. No Edison, no Bell to harness electricity.
I'm reminded of Stephen King's recent expedition into time travel, where we find out what ramifications JFK had on the world. A single point in time where history teeters. A man in a Dallas warehouse, another in a peach orchard. Ordinary people in ordinary places, and yet the world forks.
This is one of the classics of science fiction and time travel. It is - paradoxically - timeless.
jeaninesmith1962's review against another edition
4.0
This book really caught my attention. It was like an episode of the Twilight Zone but with more detail. I look forward to an interesting book club discussion!
jarichan's review against another edition
3.0
Ein Klassiker des Genres der Alternativen Geschichte. Moore stellt die Frage, wie Amerika aussehen würde, wenn der Süden den Bürgerkrieg gewonnen hätte. Dabei zeichnet er ein für uns ungewohntes Bild eines armen und verlotterten Nordens. Die Stellung der Schwarzen ist eine andere. Die Menschen führen ein anderes Leben.
Die Handlung selbst jedoch fliesst eher zäh und trocken dahin. Erst gegen Ende nimmt sie ein wenig an Fahrt auf. Jedoch hätte ich mich noch mehr für die Gesellschaft und die wirtschaftlichen Zusammenhänge interessiert. Moore konzentriert sich aber eher auf seinen Helden und seine intelektuelle Entwicklung.
Somit ein interessantes Buch, aber nicht ganz das, wonach ich gesucht hatte.
Die Handlung selbst jedoch fliesst eher zäh und trocken dahin. Erst gegen Ende nimmt sie ein wenig an Fahrt auf. Jedoch hätte ich mich noch mehr für die Gesellschaft und die wirtschaftlichen Zusammenhänge interessiert. Moore konzentriert sich aber eher auf seinen Helden und seine intelektuelle Entwicklung.
Somit ein interessantes Buch, aber nicht ganz das, wonach ich gesucht hatte.
fourtriplezed's review against another edition
5.0
Excellent Alternate History / Time travel short story.
eserafina42's review against another edition
4.0
A truly intriguing alternate history-time travel novel from the 1950s.
thomcat's review against another edition
4.0
Bring the Jubilee is told in two parts, entirely from the perspective of Hodgins "Hodge" Backmaker, citizen an alternate timeline United States. As a reader and historian, Hodge ponders many facts about the timeline - the Confederate states won the war and thrived afterward, the former United States stagnated, and the German Union won the Emperor's War (1914-1916).
In the first section of the book, Hodge leaves home and has adventures. Much is revealed about his character and some of the political climate, but not much. He also meets proponents of two different philosophies, allowing the author to comment on free will. This section is not as interesting to read, and it has been said that much of this past parallels the authors life.
In the second section, Hodge rescues a young woman in distress and joins a self-sufficient collective of scholars and intellectuals. Here the story really builds, gathering in action, more politics, a love interest, and eventually the invention of a time machine. Who better than history Hodge to travel back and observe the Battle of Gettysburg, where the South won the war?
This books is expanded from a novella released a year earlier, and I suspect the second section is the majority of that story. I found the novel a bit lacking for the added pieces, though it was included in David Pringle's list of the 100 best science fiction novels, among other accolades. I plan to track down the novella (collected in [b:The Best Alternate History Stories of the 20th Century|293299|The Best Alternate History Stories of the 20th Century|Harry Turtledove|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1388529979s/293299.jpg|1546279]) for reading soon.
In the first section of the book, Hodge leaves home and has adventures. Much is revealed about his character and some of the political climate, but not much. He also meets proponents of two different philosophies, allowing the author to comment on free will. This section is not as interesting to read, and it has been said that much of this past parallels the authors life.
In the second section, Hodge rescues a young woman in distress and joins a self-sufficient collective of scholars and intellectuals. Here the story really builds, gathering in action, more politics, a love interest, and eventually the invention of a time machine. Who better than history Hodge to travel back and observe the Battle of Gettysburg, where the South won the war?
This books is expanded from a novella released a year earlier, and I suspect the second section is the majority of that story. I found the novel a bit lacking for the added pieces, though it was included in David Pringle's list of the 100 best science fiction novels, among other accolades. I plan to track down the novella (collected in [b:The Best Alternate History Stories of the 20th Century|293299|The Best Alternate History Stories of the 20th Century|Harry Turtledove|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1388529979s/293299.jpg|1546279]) for reading soon.
sirlancelot2021's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
eigendecomp's review against another edition
5.0
Before [b:The Man in the High Castle|216363|The Man in the High Castle|Philip K. Dick|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1448756803l/216363._SY75_.jpg|2398287] there was Bring the Jubilee and in my personal opinion it's probably the better book among the two, because the space taken up by psychodelic rambling in TMHC is used to build a really compelling backstory for the protagonist here.
wishanem's review against another edition
3.0
What would the 1950's have been like in a world where the US lost the Civil War?
Ward Moore's "Bring the Jubilee" tells the story of an introverted man's search for a meaningful life in a gaslit, steam-powered, 3rd-World United States.
This book is an expanded version of a short story published in 1952, and that detail is apparent. You can see the padding necessary to make it novel-length; the plot drags in places, and the story meanders toward its conclusion through slow side-plots. Some of the extraneous supporting cast are actually quite interesting, specifically the protagonist's romantic partners. They're dramatically different from one another in ambitions and behaviors. Honestly, each of them has more distinct personality than the protagonist, and his actions are almost exclusively reactions to them and their actions.
One last note; A moderate familiarity with the events and notable generals of the Civil War, its aftermath, and late 1800s US history would greatly enhance a reader's enjoyment of this book.
Ward Moore's "Bring the Jubilee" tells the story of an introverted man's search for a meaningful life in a gaslit, steam-powered, 3rd-World United States.
This book is an expanded version of a short story published in 1952, and that detail is apparent. You can see the padding necessary to make it novel-length; the plot drags in places, and the story meanders toward its conclusion through slow side-plots. Some of the extraneous supporting cast are actually quite interesting, specifically the protagonist's romantic partners. They're dramatically different from one another in ambitions and behaviors. Honestly, each of them has more distinct personality than the protagonist, and his actions are almost exclusively reactions to them and their actions.
One last note; A moderate familiarity with the events and notable generals of the Civil War, its aftermath, and late 1800s US history would greatly enhance a reader's enjoyment of this book.
stuedb's review against another edition
3.0
I registered a book at BookCrossing.com!
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/13888744
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/13888744